Environment

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed over 1,000 buildings, forced thousands from their homes, and left at least five dead as of this writing. The Pacific Palisades fires destroyed many historic structures, including the home of legendary comedian and actor Will Rogers (d. 1935). Reading some of his quotes, I conclude […]

Climate Crisis

In a Time of Oligarchy, a New People’s (Women’s) March for a Green New Deal

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Pick up any US liberal newspaper today and there are reams of columns speculating on the fate of our country. What will happen and how quickly to our country with Trump as president and a cabinet of billionaires as they destroy an already shredded social safety net? […]

Climate Crisis

The Worst News from 2024: CO2 Went up again, as Tundra starts to Emit Carbon

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo made 2024 a hard year to bear for anyone following them, and unfortunately it was all too easy to spend the year doomscrolling through the horrid video feeds that testified to humanity’s inhumanity. The fate […]

Arctic

Why we need to Transform the Arctic Ocean into a North Pole Marine Reserve

The Conversation

(The Conversation) – Kirsten Freja Young, University of Exeter and Brendan Godley, University of Exeter At the most northerly tip of the UK, looking north from the island of Muckle Flugga, Shetland, the cold wind whips up the sea and gannets dive. While biodiversity loss in the Arctic Ocean may seem like a distant issue, […]

Batteries

We need better ways of storing renewable electricity for later: ‘flow batteries’ can help

The Conversation

By Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, UNSW Sydney (The Conversation) – As more and more solar and wind energy enters Australia’s grid, we will need ways to store it for later. We can store electricity in several different ways, from pumped hydroelectric systems to large lithium-ion battery systems. We can also use flow batteries. These are a lesser-known […]

Climate Crisis

In 2025, let’s make it Game On – not Game Over – for our precious natural World

The Conversation

By Darcy Watchorn, Deakin University and Marissa Parrott, The University of Melbourne It’s just past midnight in the cool, ancient forests of Tasmania. We’ve spent a long day and night surveying endangered Tasmanian devils. All around, small animals scurry through bushes. A devil calls in the darkness. Microbats swoop and swirl as a spotted-tailed quoll […]

Corporations

The American Oil Industry’s Playbook, Illustrated: How Drillers Offload Costly Cleanup Onto the Public

ProPublica

by Mark Olalde. ( ProPublica ) – In December 1990, officials in the federal agency tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas drilling received a memo with a dire warning: America faced a ticking time bomb of environmental liability from unplugged oil and gas wells, wrote the agency’s chief of staff. Those wells and their […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is making Plants less Nutritious − that could already be hurting Animals that are Grazers

The Conversation

By Ellen Welti, Smithsonian Institution (The Conversation) -More than one-third of all animals on Earth, from beetles to cows to elephants, depend on plant-based diets. Plants are a low-calorie food source, so it can be challenging for animals to consume enough energy to meet their needs. Now climate change is reducing the nutritional value of […]

Climate Crisis

Egypt opens 500 MW Solar Plant, Plans Factory with Sweden to Manufacture Photovoltaic Panels

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Egypt is perfect for solar power, even though the country has not implemented much of it yet. The Egyptians had installed 1.8 gigawatts of solar by the beginning of this year, most of it at the Benban Solar Park some 400 miles south of Cairo in the Aswan Governorate. But […]